GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE SHEEP AND LAMB.
678. OF ALL WILD or DOMESTICATED ANIMALS, the sheep is, without
exception, the most useful to man as a food, and the most necessary to
his health and comfort; for it not only supplies him with the lightest
and most nutritious of meats, but, in the absence of the cow, its udder
yields him milk, cream, and a sound though inferior cheese; while from
its fat he obtains light, and from its fleece broadcloth, kerseymere,
blankets, gloves, and hose. Its bones when burnt make an animal
charcoal--ivory black--to polish his boots, and when powdered, a manure
for the cultivation of his wheat; the skin, either split or whole, is
made into a mat for his carriage, a housing for his horse, or a lining
for his hat, and many other useful purposes besides, being extensively
employed in the manufacture of parchment; and finally, when oppressed by
care and sorrow, the harmonious strains that carry such soothing
contentment to the heart, are elicited from the musical strings,
prepared almost exclusively from the intestines of the sheep.
679. THIS VALUABLE ANIMAL, of which England is estimated to maintain an
average stock of 32,000,000, belongs to the class already indicated
under the ox,--the _Mammalia_; to the order of _Rumenantia_, or
cud-chewing animal; to the tribe of _Capridae_, or horned quadrupeds;
and the genus _Ovis_, or the "sheep." The sheep may be either with or
without horns; when present, however, they have always this peculiarity,
that they spring from a triangular base, are spiral in form, and
lateral, at the side of the head, in situation. The fleece of the sheep
is of two sorts, either short and harsh, or soft and woolly; the wool
always preponderating in an exact ratio to the care, attention, and
amount of domestication bestowed on the animal. The generic
peculiarities of the sheep are the triangular and spiral form of the
horns, always larger in the male when present, but absent in the most
cultivated species; having sinuses at the base of all the toes of the
four feet, with two rudimentary hoofs on the fore legs, two inguinal
teats to the udder, with a short tail in the wild breed, but of varying
length in the domesticated; have no incisor teeth in the upper jaw, but
in their place a hard elastic cushion along the margin of the gum, on
which the animal nips and breaks the herbage on which it feeds; in the
lower jaw there are eight incisor teeth and six molars on each side of
both jaws, making in all 32 teeth. The fleece consists of two coats, one
to keep the animal warm, the other to carry off the water without
wetting the skin. The first is of wool, the weight and fineness of which
depend on the quality of the pasture and the care bestowed on the flock;
the other of hair, that pierces the wool and overlaps it, and is in
excess in exact proportion to the badness of the keep and inattention
with which the animal is treated.
680. THE GREAT OBJECT OF THE GRAZIER is to procure an animal that will
yield the greatest pecuniary return in the shortest time; or, in other
words, soonest convert grass and turnips into good mutton and fine
fleece. All sheep will not do this alike; some, like men, are so
restless and irritable, that no system of feeding, however good, will
develop their frames or make them fat. The system adopted by the breeder
to obtain a valuable animal for the butcher, is to enlarge the capacity
and functions of the digestive organs, and reduce those of the head and
chest, or the mental and respiratory organs. In the first place, the
mind should be tranquillized, and those spaces that can never produce
animal fibre curtailed, and greater room afforded, as in the abdomen,
for those that can. And as nothing militates against the fattening
process so much as restlessness, the chief wish of the grazier is to
find a dull, indolent sheep, one who, instead of frisking himself,
leaping his wattles, or even condescending to notice the butting gambols
of his silly companions, silently fills his paunch with pasture, and
then seeking a shady nook, indolently and luxuriously chows his cud with
closed eyes and blissful satisfaction, only rising when his delicious
repast is ended, to proceed silently and without emotion to repeat the
pleasing process of laying in more provender, and then returning to his
dreamy siesta to renew the delightful task of rumination. Such animals
are said to have a _lymphatic_ temperament, and are of so kindly a
nature, that on good pasturage they may be said to grow daily. The
Leicestershire breed is the best example of this lymphatic and contented
animal, and the active Orkney, who is half goat in his habits, of the
restless and unprofitable. The rich pasture of our midland counties
would take years in making the wiry Orkney fat and profitable, while one
day's fatigue in climbing rocks after a coarse and scanty herbage would
probably cause the actual death of the pampered and short-winded
Leicester.
681. THE MORE REMOVED FROM THE NATURE of the animal is the food on which
it lives, the more difficult is the process of assimilation, and the
more complex the chain of digestive organs; for it must be evident to
all, that the same apparatus that converts _flesh_ into _flesh_, is
hardly calculated to transmute _grass_ into flesh. As the process of
digestion in carnivorous animals is extremely simple, these organs are
found to be remarkably short, seldom exceeding the length of the
animal's body; while, where digestion is more difficult, from the
unassimilating nature of the aliment, as in the ruminant order, the
alimentary canal, as is the case with the sheep, is _twenty-seven times
the length of the body._ The digestive organ in all ruminant animals
consists of _four stomachs_, or, rather, a capacious pouch, divided by
doorways and valves into four compartments, called, in their order of
position, the Paunch, the Reticulum, the Omasum, and the Abomasum. When
the sheep nibbles the grass, and is ignorantly supposed to be eating, he
is, in fact, only preparing the raw material of his meal, in reality
only mowing the pasture, which, as he collects, is swallowed instantly,
passing into the first receptacle, the _paunch_, where it is surrounded
by a quantity of warm saliva, in which the herbage undergoes a process
of maceration or softening, till the animal having filled this
compartment, the contents pass through a valve into the second or
smaller bag,--the _reticulum_, where, having again filled the paunch
with a reserve, the sheep lies down and commences that singular process
of chewing the cud, or, in other words, masticating the food he has
collected. By the operation of a certain set of muscles, a small
quantity of this softened food from the _reticulum_, or second bag, is
passed into the mouth, which it now becomes the pleasure of the sheep to
grind under his molar teeth into a soft smooth pulp, the operation being
further assisted by a flow of saliva, answering the double purpose of
increasing the flavour of the aliment and promoting the solvency of the
mass. Having completely comminuted and blended this mouthful, it is
swallowed a second time; but instead of returning to the paunch or
reticulum, it passes through another valve into a side cavity,--the
_omasum_, where, after a maceration in more saliva for some hours, it
glides by the same contrivance into the fourth pouch,--the _abomasum_,
an apartment in all respects analogous to the ordinary stomach of
animals, and where the process of digestion, begun and carried on in the
previous three, is here consummated, and the nutrient principle, by
means of the bile, eliminated from the digested aliment. Such is the
process of digestion in sheep and oxen.
682. NO OTHER ANIMAL, even of the same order, possesses in so remarkable
a degree the power of converting pasture into flesh as the
Leicestershire sheep; the South Down and Cheviot, the two next breeds in
quality, are, in consequence of the greater vivacity of the animal's
nature, not equal to it in that respect, though in both the brain and
chest are kept subservient to the greater capacity of the organs of
digestion. Besides the advantage of increased bulk and finer fleeces,
the breeder seeks to obtain an augmented deposit of tissue in those
parts of the carcase most esteemed as food, or, what are called in the
trade "prime joints;" and so far has this been effected, that the
comparative weight of the hind quarters over the fore has become a test
of quality in the breed, the butchers in some markets charging twopence
a pound more for that portion of the sheep. Indeed, so superior are the
hind quarters of mutton now regarded, that very many of the West-end
butchers never deal in any other part of the sheep.
683. THE DIFFERENCE IN THE QUALITY OF THE FLESH in various breeds is a
well-established fact, not alone in flavour, but also in tenderness; and
that the nature of the pasture on which the sheep is fed influences the
flavour of the meat, is equally certain, and shown in the estimation in
which those flocks are held which have grazed on the thymy heath of
Bamstead in Sussex. It is also a well-established truth, that the
_larger_ the frame of the animal, the _coarser_ is the meat, and that
_small bones_ are both guarantees for the fineness of the breed and the
delicacy of the flesh. The sex too has much to do in determining the
quality of the meat; in the males, the lean is closer in fibre, deeper
in colour, harder in texture, less juicy, and freer from fat, than in
the female, and is consequently tougher and more difficult of digestion;
but probably age, and the character of the pasturage on which they are
reared, has, more than any other cause, an influence on the quality and
tenderness of the meat.
684. THE NUMEROUS VARIETIES of sheep inhabiting the different regions of
the earth have been reduced by Cuvier to three, or at most four,
species: the _Ovis Amman_, or the Argali, the presumed parent stock of
all the rest; the _Ovis Tragelaphus_, the bearded sheep of Africa; the
_Ovis Musmon_, the Musmon of Southern Europe; and the _Ovis Montana_,
the Mouflon of America; though it is believed by many naturalists that
this last is so nearly identical with the Indian Argali as to be
undeserving a separate place. It is still a controversy to which of
these three we are indebted for the many breeds of modern domestication;
the Argali, however, by general belief, has been considered as the most
_probable_ progenitor of the present varieties.
685. THE EFFECTS PRODUCED BY CHANGE OF CLIMATE, accident, and other
causes, must have been great to accomplish so complete a physical
alteration as the primitive Argali must have undergone before the
Musmon, or Mouflon of Corsica, the _immediate_ progenitor of all our
European breeds, assumed his present appearance. The Argali is about a
fifth larger in size than the ordinary English sheep, and being a native
of a tropical clime, his fleece is of hair instead of wool, and of a
warm reddish brown, approaching to yellow; a thick mane of darker hair,
about seven inches long, commences from two long tufts at the angle of
the jaws, and, running _under_ the throat and neck, descends down the
chest, dividing, at the fore fork, into two parts, one running down the
front of each leg, as low as the shank. The horns, unlike the character
of the order generally, have a quadrangular base, and, sweeping inwards,
terminate in a sharp point. The tail, about seven inches long, ends in a
tuft of stiff hairs. From this remarkable muffler-looking beard, the
French have given the species the name of _Mouflon à manchettes_. From
the primitive stock _eleven_ varieties have been reared in this country,
of the domesticated sheep, each supposed by their advocates to possess
some one or more special qualities. These eleven, embracing the Shetland
or Orkney; the Dun-woolled; Black-faced, or heath-bred; the Moorland, or
Devonshire; the Cheviot; the Horned, of Norfolk the Ryeland; South-Down;
the Merino; the Old Leicester, and the Teeswater, or New Leicester, have
of late years been epitomized; and, for all useful and practical
purposes, reduced to the following four orders:--
686. THE SOUTH-DOWN, the LEICESTER, the BLACK-FACED, and the CHEVIOT.
[Illustration: SOUTH-DOWN RAM.]
[Illustration: SOUTH-DOWN EWE.]
687. SOUTH-DOWNS.--It appears, as far as our investigation can trace the
fact, that from the very earliest epoch of agricultural history in
England, the breezy range of light chalky hills running through the
south-west and south of Sussex and Hampshire, and known as the
South-Downs, has been famous for a superior race of sheep; and we find
the Romans early established mills and a cloth-factory at Winchester,
where they may be said to terminate, which rose to such estimation, from
the fineness of the wool and texture of the cloth, that the produce was
kept as only worthy to clothe emperors. From this, it may be inferred
that sheep have always been indigenous to this hilly tract. Though
boasting so remote a reputation, it is comparatively within late years
that the improvement and present state of perfection of this breed has
been effected, the South-Down new ranking, for symmetry of shape,
constitution, and early maturity, with any stock in the kingdom. The
South-Down has no horns, is covered with a fine wool from two to three
inches long, has a small head, and legs and face of a grey colour. It
is, however, considered deficient in depth and breadth of chest. A
marked peculiarity of this breed is that its hind quarters stand higher
than the fore, the quarters weighing from fifteen to eighteen pounds.
[Illustration: LEICESTER RAM.]
[Illustration: LEICESTER EWE.]
688. THE LEICESTER.--It was not till the year 1755 that Mr. Robert
Bakewell directed his attention to the improvement of his stock of
sheep, and ultimately effected that change in the character of his flock
which has brought the breed to hold so prominent a place. The Leicester
is regarded as the largest example of the improved breeds, very
productive, and yielding a good fleece. He has a small head, covered
with short white hairs, a clean muzzle, an open countenance, full eye,
long thin ear, tapering neck, well-arched ribs, and straight back. The
meat is indifferent, its flavour not being so good as that of the
South-Down, and there is a very large proportion of fat. Average weight
of carcase from 90 to 100 lbs.
[Illustration: HEATH RAM.]
[Illustration: HEATH EWE.]
689. BLACK-FACED, on HEATH-BRED SHEEP.--This is the most hardy of all
our native breeds, and originally came from Ettrick Forest. The face and
legs are black, or sometimes mottled, the horns spiral, and on the top
of the forehead it has a small round tuft of lighter-coloured wool than
on the face; has the muzzle and lips of the same light hue, and what
shepherds call a mealy mouth; the eye is full of vivacity and fire, and
well open; the body long, round, and firm, and the limbs robust. The
wool is thin, coarse, and light. Weight of the quarter, from 10 to 16
lbs.
690. THE CHEVIOT.--From the earliest traditions, these hills in the
North, like the chalk-ridges in the South, have possessed a race of
large-carcased sheep, producing a valuable fleece. To these physical
advantages, they added a sound constitution, remarkable vigour, and
capability to endure great privation. Both sexes are destitute of horns,
face white, legs long and clean, carries the head erect, has the throat
and neck well covered, the cars long and open, and the face animated.
The Cheviot is a small-boned sheep, and well covered with wool to the
hough; the only defect in this breed, is in a want of depth in the
chest. Weight of the quarter, from 12 to 18 lbs.
[Illustration: ROMNEY-MARSH RAM.]
[Illustration: ROMNEY-MARSH EWE.]
691. THOUGH THE ROMNEY MARSHES, that wide tract of morass and lowland
moor extending from the Weald (or ancient forest) of Kent into Sussex,
has rather been regarded as a general feeding-ground for any kind of
sheep to be pastured on, it has yet, from the earliest date, been famous
for a breed of animals almost peculiar to the locality, and especially
for size, length, thickness, and quantity of wool, and what is called
thickness of stocking; and on this account for ages held pre-eminence
over every other breed in the kingdom. So satisfied were the Kentish men
with the superiority of their sheep, that they long resisted any
crossing in the breed. At length, however, this was effected, and from
the Old Romney and New Leicester a stock was produced that proved, in an
eminent degree, the advantage of the cross; and though the breed was
actually smaller than the original, it was found that the new stock did
not consume so much food, the stocking was increased, they were ready
for the market a _year_ sooner; that the fat formed more on the exterior
of the carcase, where it was of most advantage to the grazier, rather
than as formerly in the interior, where it went to the butcher as offal;
and though the wool was shorter and lighter, it was of a better colour,
finer, and possessed of superior felting properties.
692. THE ROMNEY MARSH BREED is a large animal, deep, close, and compact,
with white face and legs, and yields a heavy fleece of a good staple
quality. The general structure is, however, considered defective, the
chest being narrow and the extremities coarse; nevertheless its tendency
to fatten, and its early maturity, are universally admitted. The Romney
Marsh, therefore, though not ranking as a first class in respect of
perfection and symmetry of breed, is a highly useful, profitable, and
generally advantageous variety of the English domestic sheep.
693. DIFFERENT NAMES HAVE BEEN GIVEN to sheep by their breeders,
according to their age and sex. The male is called a ram, or tup; after
weaning, he is said to be a hog, or hogget, or a lamb-hog, tup-hog, or
teg; later he is a wether, or wether-hog; after the first shearing, a
shearing, or dinmont; and after each succeeding shearing, a two, three,
or four-shear ram, tup, or wether, according to circumstances. The
female is called a ewe, or gimmer-lamb, till weaned, when she becomes,
according to the shepherd's nomenclature, a gimmer-ewe, hog, or teg;
after shearing, a gimmer or shearing-ewe, or theave; and in future a
two, three, or four-shear ewe, or theave.
694. THE MODE OF SLAUGHTERING SHEEP is perhaps as humane and expeditious
a process as could be adopted to attain the objects sought: the animal
being laid on its side in a sort of concave stool, the butcher, while
pressing the body with his knee, transfixes the throat near the angle of
the jaw, passing his knife between the windpipe and bones of the neck;
thus dividing the jugulars, carotids, and large vessels, the death being
very rapid from such a hemorrhage.
[Illustration: SIDE OF MUTTON, SHOWING THE SEVERAL JOINTS.]
695. ALMOST EVERY LARGE CITY has a particular manner of cutting up, or,
as it is called, dressing the carcase. In London this process is very
simple, and as our butchers have found that much skewering back,
doubling one part over another, or scoring the inner cuticle or fell,
tends to spoil the meat and shorten the time it would otherwise keep,
they avoid all such treatment entirely. The carcase when flayed (which
operation is performed while yet warm), the sheep when hung up and the
head removed, presents the profile shown in our cut; the small numerals
indicating the parts or joints into which one half of the animal is cut.
After separating the hind from the fore quarters, with eleven ribs to
the latter, the quarters are usually subdivided in the manner shown in
the sketch, in which the several joins are defined by the intervening
lines and figures. _Hind quarter_: No. 1, the leg; 2, the loin--the two,
when cut in one piece, being called the saddle. _Fore quarter_: No. 3,
the shoulder; 4 and 5 the neck; No. 5 being called, for distinction, the
scrag, which is generally afterwards separated from 4, the lower and
better joint; No. 6, the breast. The haunch of mutton, so often served
at public dinners and special entertainments, comprises all the leg and
so much of the loin, short of the ribs or lap, as is indicated on the
upper part of the carcase by a dotted line.
696. THE GENTLE AND TIMID DISPOSITION of the sheep, and its defenceless
condition, must very early have attached it to man for motives less
selfish than either its fleece or its flesh; for it has been proved
beyond a doubt that, obtuse as we generally regard it, it is susceptible
of a high degree of domesticity, obedience, and affection. In many parts
of Europe, where the flocks are guided by the shepherd's voice alone, it
is no unusual thing for a sheep to quit the herd when called by its
name, and follow the keeper like a dog. In the mountains of Scotland,
when a flock is invaded by a savage dog, the rams have been known to
form the herd into a circle, and placing themselves on the outside line,
keep the enemy at bay, or charging on him in a troop, have despatched
him with their horns.
697. THE VALUE OF THE SHEEP seems to have been early understood by Adam
in his fallen state; his skin not only affording him protection for his
body, but a covering for his tent; and accordingly, we find Abel
intrusted with this portion of his father's stock; for the Bible tells
us that "Abel was a keeper of sheep." What other animals were
domesticated at that time we can only conjecture, or at what exact
period the flesh of the sheep was first eaten for food by man, is
equally, if not uncertain, open to controversy. For though some
authorities maintain the contrary, it is but natural to suppose that
when Abel brought firstlings of his flock, "and the fat thereof," as a
sacrifice, the less dainty portions, not being oblations, were hardly
likely to have been flung away as refuse. Indeed, without supposing Adam
and his descendants to have eaten animal food, we cannot reconcile the
fact of Jubal Cain, Cain's son, and his family, living in tents, as they
are reported to have done, knowing that both their own garments and the
coverings of the tents, were made from the hides and skins of the
animals they bred; for the number of sheep and oxen slain for oblations
only, would not have supplied sufficient material for two such necessary
purposes. The opposite opinion is, that animal food was not eaten till
after the Flood, when the Lord renewed his covenant with Noah. From
Scriptural authority we learn many interesting facts as regards the
sheep: the first, that mutton fat was considered the most delicious
portion of any meat, and the tail and adjacent part the most exquisite
morsel in the whole body; consequently, such were regarded as especially
fit for the offer of sacrifice. From this fact we may reasonably infer
that the animal still so often met with in Palestine and Syria, and
known as the Fat-tailed sheep, was in use in the days of the patriarchs,
though probably not then of the size and weight it now attains to; a
supposition that gains greater strength, when it is remembered that the
ram Abraham found in the bush, when he went to offer up Isaac, was a
horned animal, being entangled in the brake by his curved horns; so far
proving that it belonged to the tribe of the Capridae, the fat-tailed
sheep appertaining to the same family.
LAMBS.
698. THOUGH THE LAMBING SEASON IN THIS COUNTRY usually commences in
March, under the artificial system, so much pursued now to please the
appetite of luxury, lambs can be procured at all seasons. When, however,
the sheep lambs in mid-winter, or the inclemency of the weather would
endanger the lives of mother and young, if exposed to its influence, it
is customary to rear the lambs within-doors, and under the shelter of
stables or barns, where, foddered on soft hay, and part fed on cow's
milk, the little creatures thrive rapidly: to such it is customary to
give the name of House Lamb, to distinguish it from that reared in the
open air, or grass-fed. The ewe goes five months with her young, about
152 days, or close on 22 weeks. The weaning season commences on poor
lands, about the end of the third month, but on rich pasture not till
the close of the fourth--sometimes longer.
699. FROM THE LARGE PROPORTION OF MOISTURE OR FLUIDS contained in the
tissues of all young animals, the flesh of lamb and veal is much more
prone, in close, damp weather, to become tainted and spoil than the
flesh of the more mature, drier, and closer-textured beef and mutton.
Among epicures, the most delicious sorts of lamb are those of the
South-Down breed, known by their black feet; and of these, those which
have been exclusively suckled on the milk of the parent ewe, are
considered the finest. Next to these in estimation are those fed on the
milk of several dams, and last of all, though the fattest, the grass-fed
lamb; this, however, implies an age much greater than either of the
others.
[Illustration: SIDE OF LAMB.]
700. LAMB, in the early part of the season, however reared, is in
London, and indeed generally, sold in quarters, divided with eleven ribs
to the forequarter; but, as the season advances, these are subdivided
into two, and the hind-quarter in the same manner; the first consisting
of the shoulder, and the neck and breast; the latter, of the leg and the
loin,--as shown in the cut illustrative of mutton. As lamb, from the
juicy nature of its flesh, is especially liable to spoil in unfavourable
weather, it should be frequently wiped, so as to remove any moisture
that may form on it.
701. IN THE PURCHASING OF LAMB FOR THE TABLE, there are certain signs by
which the experienced judgment is able to form an accurate opinion
whether the animal has been lately slaughtered, and whether the joints
possess that condition of fibre indicative of good and wholesome meat.
The first of these doubts may be solved satisfactorily by the bright and
dilated appearance of the eye; the quality of the fore-quarter can
always be guaranteed by the blue or healthy ruddiness of the jugular, or
vein of the neck; while the rigidity of the knuckle, and the firm,
compact feel of the kidney, will answer in an equally positive manner
for the integrity of the hind-quarter.
702. MODE OF CUTTING UP A SIDE OF LAMB IN LONDON.--1, 1. Ribs; 2.
Breast; 3. Shoulder; 4. Loin; 5. Leg; 1,2,3. Fore Quarter.
RECIPES.